Financials lead rise in Indian shares; small- and mid-caps outperform

BENGALURU, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Indian shares rose on Monday after easing concerns over the deposit growth at private lender HDFC Bank lifted financials, though a drop in information technology (IT) stocks on U.S. rate concerns capped the gains.

The Nifty 50 (.NSEI) index settled 0.21% higher at 19,306.05, while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) rose 0.17% to 64,996.60.

The more domestically focussed mid-caps (.NIFMDCP100) and small-caps (.NIFSMCP100) outperformed the blue-chips, rising 0.50% and 0.74%, respectively.

\“Strong retail inflows have predominantly driven the recent rise in the small- and mid-caps, drawing interest from investors seeking near-term returns,\” said Raghvendra Nath, managing director of Mumbai-based investment advisory firm Ladderup Wealth Management.

Ten of the 13 major sectoral indexes logged gains, with high weightage financials (.NIFTYFIN) rising 0.55%.

Private lender and the highest weighted Nifty 50 firm HDFC Bank (HDFB.NS) added 1.04% after global brokerage Goldman Sachs reiterated \“buy\” and said that the concerns over tepid deposit growth in June quarter were \“overdone.\”

Among individual stocks, financial services firm Piramal Enterprises (PIRA.NS) climbed 4.47% on its share buyback update.

Gold loan provider Manappuram Finance (MNFL.NS) advanced 3.30% after the company said in a regulatory filing that the Kerala High Court quashed a lawsuit against its CEO brought by the countrys financial crime fighting agency.

Bharat Forge (BFRG.NS) gained 2.59% to a record high after its joint venture won an order of 2.88 billion rupees from the defence ministry for missile systems.

Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries (RELI.NS) closed 1% lower after the company barely gave details of the much-anticipated initial public offerings of Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail at its 46th annual general meeting when markets closed.

IT stocks (.NIFTYIT) dropped 0.46% on the likelihood of prolonged high U.S. rates. IT companies draw the bulk of their revenue from the country. U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday reiterated that the central bank would make all efforts to tackle inflation.